Apple Shows Off Plans For Ring-Shaped HQ In Cupertino

“Best office building ever” is how Peter Oppenheimer, Apple CFO, described Apple’s proposed new headquarters in Cupertino. The ring-shaped spaceship-looking structure will be built on the former site of the 175-acre HP campus, and in addition to the architectural ambition, the site will have a strong focus on being green.

The polished glass and slick design reminiscent of the iOS devices (and in fact initially designed in part by Steve Jobs and Jony Ive), the building will use a natural ventilation system to eliminate the need to run air conditioning 70% of the time, smart LED lighting, and some 7,000 fruit, oak, and olive trees. Even the dirt from the construction process will be reused on site in berms. Apple says that the building will use about 30% less energy than a normal Silicon Valley office, and even that 30% is renewable.

Credits: San Jose Mercury News

The ring shape (we’re resisting the urge to make a “one ring to rule them all” joke) of the structure is designed to be very open and foster collaboration among workers, who may find themselves on one side of the ring early in the day and on the other side later that afternoon. "We found that rectangles or squares or long buildings or buildings with more than four stories would inhibit collaboration," Oppenheimer said. "We wanted this to be a walkable building, and that's why we eventually settled on a circle.''

Credits: San Jose Mercury News

For as pretentious as Apple can be about what it makes, this campus seems terrific; the building shape itself is an interesting idea, and Apple deserves a tip o’ the cap for its green initiative here. Assuming everything passes the city council, the campus should be finished and ready for action in 2015.